Frances Merriman, age 98, of Lemmon, SD, passed away on Monday morning, March 25, 2019 in Lemmon, SD surrounded by family. Funeral services will be on Friday, March 29, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. at the Spencer Memorial Presbyterian Church in Lemmon. Pastor Tottie Lenerville and Pastor Barb West will officiate with burial at Greenhill Cemetery in Lemmon.

Frances Louise (Waltz) Merriman was born on November 9, 1920, to Johanna (Van der Haagen) Waltz and Albert L. Waltz in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was to be named Frederick, but …they named her Frances as a compromise. Her nickname as a little girl was "Fritzie." She had an older brother, Richard, an older sister, Katherine, and two younger sisters Louise, and Barbara. Her father, was an agriculture teacher, and her mother was a homemaker. Her parents played piano and violin for small audiences.

When she was a baby, the family moved to a fruit farm near Akron, Ohio, Frances enjoyed summers swimming and tanning on beaches with relatives in Lake Michigan towns. She enjoyed athletics, especially swimming, tennis, softball, and basketball. A self-proclaimed "tom-boy," she preferred to hang out with her older brother Dick. A scar on her eyebrow was evidence of their adventures. She was close to her sister Louise when they were older. When she wasn't with family, she developed a life-long passion for reading.

In Akron, Frances graduated from high school in 1938 and Akron University in 1942 with a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education. She also attended the University of Chicago for graduate classes after receiving her degree. She taught at Coventry High School near Akron for two years, and then went to Fallon, Nevada to teach an additional two years.

In Fallon, she met Don Merriman, who was serving at the Naval Air Station. They married in 1946. They honeymooned at Gooseberry Falls, Minnesota, near Duluth. They established their home on a farm near Shadehill, South Dakota. The Merrimans raised four children there: Claudia, John, Nancy, and Richard.

Frances had a big transition when she moved to South Dakota, since she came from cities with standard amenities. They first lived with Don's widowed mother, Edith, and several of Don's brothers and sisters. There was no running water, indoor plumbing, or electricity. Frances and Don were able to bring their first child home to their own one-room house near the Grand River, with running water. Electricity came to West River Country a couple of years later. Indoor plumbing had to wait. Over the years, they updated and added onto the house, and had three more children.

Frances had the help of Edith Merriman, Don's mother, to learn housekeeping skills and home remedies. Frances enjoyed having a big garden, preserving produce, and learning how to make cottage cheese and butter. Once Don started irrigating, sweet corn was plentiful. She grew to love her country home, growing flowers, and she was especially satisfied when she mowed. She was frustrated by the difficulties she had trying to grow moss roses in the flower bed circled by the driveway, which was gravel that needed considerable soil amendment, but that was unheard of in those days. She enjoyed seeing the other country women at the Lakeside Ladies gatherings. During these years, Frances both substituted and taught regularly in Lemmon in both the high school and grade school.

Don and Frances were rural mail carriers for 40 years, and Frances loved driving the gravel roads in her little green Dodge Colt to deliver mail and mingle with the patrons scattered throughout the Shadehill Dam and White Butte area.

Don and Frances were semi-retired when they were able to do some traveling after the children were grown, including Hawaii and Australia in the mid 1980's, and regular winter stays with Frances' brother in California for around 10 years.

In later life, Frances worked at the Petrified Wood Park in Lemmon for five summers.  Frances and Don moved into Lemmon around the year 2000, falls and broken bones made it difficult to stay in the country. Dementia robbed Frances of her last years, and she passed on March 25, 2019, at the age of 98.

She is survived by her loving husband of 72 years, Donald Merriman, her older brother Richard Waltz of Sacramento CA; two sons and daughters-in-law, John and Brenda (Hinderer) Merriman, Lemmon, SD; Rich and Sari (Meier) Merriman, Aberdeen, SD; two daughters, Nancy Smart, Brooklyn Park, MN; and Claudia Merriman, Lemmon SD and Burnsville, MN; 9 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren, and numerous nephews and nieces.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her sister Barbara who died in infancy, her sisters, Louise Crabtree and Kay Connatser, her brothers-in law and sisters-in law, Russell and Helen Merriman, Glenn Merriman, and Lucille Merriman Lutz; her son-in-law, Kenneth Smart; and her great-granddaughter, Kirra O'Connor.

Visitation will be from 1-5 p.m. and from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, March 28, 2019 at the Evanson Jensen Funeral Home in Lemmon, SD.